It's great to have the club championships back. Hoganstand are giving good coverage. The Irish Independent to be fair had 5 storylines to watch over the weekend. The "New Format 2026 All Ireland" applied based on some 2025 results and some extreme examples would have something as follows: ROUND 1 Kerry v Roscommon Donegal v Tyrone Galway v Dublin Louth v Monaghan Armagh v Derry Mayo v Cavan Meath v Cork Clare v Down
ROUND 2A Meath v Kerry Dublin v Armagh Tyrone v Cavan Monaghan v Down
ROUND 2B Galway v Donegal Roscommon v Louth Derry v Mayo Cork v Clare
ROUND 3 Kerry v Mayo Dublin v Donegal Cavan v Cork Down v Louth
QUARTER FINALS Meath v Cavan Armagh v Kerry Tyrone v Down Monaghan v Donegal
Galway or Donegal and Derry or Mayo would be knocked out after Round 2B. Kerry or Mayo/Derry and Dublin or Donegal/Galway would be knocked out after Round 3. 2 to 4 of the strong All Ireland contenders, depending on the draws, will be looking at elimination before the quarter finals. The "blunt instrument" that Burns & Co are looking for.
https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/337762 "Sarsfields beat Cashel King Cormacs by 0-25 to 1-19 in their Group Two closer at Holycross on Saturday evening but agonisingly missed out on progression by the narrowest of margins - they needed to win by one more point to leapfrog Cashel into second place in the final group standings."
This is the drawback of the group stage format in championship. You can beat a team but they might progress on points difference. The advantage of the double eliminator format is that you are not depending on results from elsewhere.
Replying To legendzxix: "https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/337762 "Sarsfields beat Cashel King Cormacs by 0-25 to 1-19 in their Group Two closer at Holycross on Saturday evening but agonisingly missed out on progression by the narrowest of margins - they needed to win by one more point to leapfrog Cashel into second place in the final group standings."
This is the drawback of the group stage format in championship. You can beat a team but they might progress on points difference. The advantage of the double eliminator format is that you are not depending on results from elsewhere."
Replying To legendzxix: "https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/337762 "Sarsfields beat Cashel King Cormacs by 0-25 to 1-19 in their Group Two closer at Holycross on Saturday evening but agonisingly missed out on progression by the narrowest of margins - they needed to win by one more point to leapfrog Cashel into second place in the final group standings."
This is the drawback of the group stage format in championship. You can beat a team but they might progress on points difference. The advantage of the double eliminator format is that you are not depending on results from elsewhere."
Also, maybe that points to "head to head" as a better alternative (but it should be consistently applied, for 3+ tied teams as well).
Replying To legendzxix: "https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/337762 "Sarsfields beat Cashel King Cormacs by 0-25 to 1-19 in their Group Two closer at Holycross on Saturday evening but agonisingly missed out on progression by the narrowest of margins - they needed to win by one more point to leapfrog Cashel into second place in the final group standings."
This is the drawback of the group stage format in championship. You can beat a team but they might progress on points difference. The advantage of the double eliminator format is that you are not depending on results from elsewhere."
No it isnt a drawback of a group format. you simply change rules that if teams are level on points the first decider is head to head result and then go down to other criteria.
Replying To legendzxix: "<a href="https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/337762">https://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/337762</a>
"Sarsfields beat Cashel King Cormacs by 0-25 to 1-19 in their Group Two closer at Holycross on Saturday evening but agonisingly missed out on progression by the narrowest of margins - they needed to win by one more point to leapfrog Cashel into second place in the final group standings."
This is the drawback of the group stage format in championship. You can beat a team but they might progress on points difference. The advantage of the double eliminator format is that you are not depending on results from elsewhere."</div>No it isnt a drawback of a group format. you simply change rules that if teams are level on points the first decider is head to head result and then go down to other criteria."
I'd be a fan of group systems precisely because the results of other fixtures impact teams.
But why the obsession with head to head overriding points difference.
The idea of a group stage is that you get a second chance. If you have a bad ref/injury and lose a match narrowly why should you have to be continually penalized if you recover and hockey everyone else after that?
Replying To tirawleybaron: "But why the obsession with head to head overriding points difference.
The idea of a group stage is that you get a second chance. If you have a bad ref/injury and lose a match narrowly why should you have to be continually penalized if you recover and hockey everyone else after that?"
I agree with you, I don't really see the point to head to head as a tiebreaker. It makes there more likelihood of dead rubber going into the final round also. The one problem with scoring difference is that 1 blowout result can dominate.